ABSTRACT

A striking feature of the connectivity project involving 65 countries is that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has since become a catchall term for Chinese investment in connectivity. This chapter concentrates on the Silk Road Economic Belt and the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, rather than other Asian land corridors or the maritime routes. While the broader approach undertaken as part of the BRI is part of a pattern of Chinese foreign policy that has been ongoing for more than a decade in Central Asia, the BRI has its roots in a desire by President Xi Jinping to change the nature of China's relations with its neighbours. The specific use of the Silk Road terminology was to tie the vision to the region and its history but that irritated China, which saw itself as the owner of the Silk Road terminology, given it was the source and end point of many of the historical silk routes.